So I have this absolute stud of a pitcher on one of my teams. He's in his second year of arbitration asking for $6.7M. He's only 26 years old, has won the Cy Young three times and I'm worried that if I go to arb with him twice more I might risk losing him to Free Agency right in the middle of my teams peak. So the question is should I just sign him now for the $8m/season he's asking for long term now, wait another season sign him before arb then for a higher price, or completely wait it out and get all the cheap years out of him while I still can.

You can get a Cy Young pitcher through his age-31 season for $8M a year, or save some money and have to match someone else's $20M/year offer 2 seasons down the road. What possible argument could there be for not signing him now? Sign him now, and with his Health/Makeup hope he wants to re-up with you after the deal you offer him today expires. Try to save money on bench players and middle relievers, not staff aces. Patience has an effect, but not nearly enough to take any chance that he'll change his tune to wanting to test the market.

i always thought the only way you could lose a guy come his third arb was if you beat him the previous 2 arbs. as long as you didn't do that, you should be able to pay his elevated rate for this season and then lock him up next.

Arb twice, sign whatever long term contract he asks for next season. With 72 patience, he is yours for as long as you want him if you keep renewing his contracts before they expire entering the offseason.

There's no such thing as a player wanting fewer years in this game to my knowledge. I've even signed a free agent scrap heap guy that wanted 3.5mil for 1yr to a 3.5mil x 5yrs deal. They may ask for one thing, but they always accept 5 yr deals so far as I know.

Posted by boogerlips on 6/21/2013 2:50:00 AM (view original):There's no such thing as a player wanting fewer years in this game to my knowledge. I've even signed a free agent scrap heap guy that wanted 3.5mil for 1yr to a 3.5mil x 5yrs deal. They may ask for one thing, but they always accept 5 yr deals so far as I know.

Older players may reduce their LT demands after rollover.

I've seen many times instances where (for example) a player might want 4 seasons for "X" dollars before rollover, and only 3 seasons for "y" dollars after rollover (where y < x).